Engadget is reporting that a 12 GB flash-based PlayStation 3 retail SKU is set to hit North American markets on August 18. The story first surfaced when Engadget spotted a flyer from Canada's Future Shop showing off the 12 GB PS3 for $199. The 12 GB PS3 was released in Europe last October, but never made its way to North America.

The report that these SKUs are making their way into various provinces in Canada (according to sources speaking to Engadget) reinforces a report by earlier in the month by PlayStation Lifestyle.

Engadget also obtained a picture of the 12GB PlayStation 3 in a Kmart stockroom somewhere in the United States (we assume it was sent in by an employee) with a sticker that reads "Do not sell or display prior to 08/18/2013."

So it looks like this new SKU is going to hit retail outlets officially on August 18. We expect that Sony will confirm or deny this news at some point before all this happens. Stay tuned.

Key term in the article: "Flash-based." Also known as a solid-state drive. Typically a faster read time, no moving parts involved, but much less memory per $ cost. But it's usually a factor of 1/4-1/2 the memory at the same cost, so this still seems quite low, considering you can get a 250GB PS3 for ~$250 these days. Perhaps if this were like the PS4 and allowed play while installing, it might make sense... As it is, I'm not quite sure who this is supposed to appeal to.